Susanne Hampton – Twin Surprise For The Single Doc (страница 7)
‘Do you have any names for the boys?’ he asked, trying to keep Claudia focused as he dealt with the medical emergency that was unfolding before his eyes.
She tried to think but the names weren’t there. They were special names and they should have spilled out without any effort but she was befuddled, which wasn’t her. ‘I think...’ She paused momentarily as the names she had chosen now seemed strangely out of reach. She blinked to bring herself back on track. ‘Thomas...and Luca...after each of their great-grandpas.’
‘I think they are strong names for two little fighters. Is this baby Thomas or Luca?’
Claudia smiled down at her son, still attached to her breast but not really sucking successfully. ‘Thomas...but I think he’s tired already and a bit too small.’
‘I think you’re right on both counts.’
‘I’m feeling quite dizzy again.’ She paused as she felt herself wavering and her vision was starting to blur. Fear was mounting again inside her. ‘Am I going to die?’
‘No, you’re going to pull through and raise your two sons until they are grown men.’
Claudia felt weaker by the minute. She knew there was something very serious happening, even though she couldn’t see the blood. ‘If I don’t make it...’
‘You will,’ he argued as he reached for Thomas, who was unable to suckle, and placed him safely on the floor beside his brother, Luca.
She closed her eyes for a moment. She felt too weak to fight. ‘You need to contact my sister, Harriet. Her details are in my phone. She needs to be there for my boys if I can’t be.’
‘Claudia, listen to me. You’re going to make it, but I’m going to have to do something very uncomfortable for you.’
‘What?’ she asked in a worried whisper.
‘I’m going to compress your uterus with my hands. It will further slow the bleeding.’
She nodded but she felt as if she was close to drifting off to sleep. ‘If you have to, then do it.’
‘Try to stay awake,’ he pleaded with her as he attempted to manually compress the uterus with the firm pressure of his hands.
Minutes passed but still the blood was flowing over his hands to the floor beneath her. Claudia needed to be in a hospital and she needed to be there now. This was something more serious than the usual postpartum blood loss.
She was dangerously close to losing consciousness as he gently removed his hands. The manual pressure could not stop the bleeding. Claudia needed surgical intervention if she was to survive. He reached for the films and ripped open the envelope. The films scattered on the floor but, as he grabbed the report, his worst fears were confirmed. Claudia’s placenta had invaded the walls of her uterus. Every part of his body shuddered. It was déjà vu. The prognosis was identical to what he had faced all those years ago. There was no way her obstetrician would have allowed her to board a plane with the condition. Claudia would have delivered her sons in America, whether it had been this day or another.
With a heavy heart, he dropped his gloves and the report to the floor and pulled a barely conscious Claudia into his arms, where he held her while he stroked the faces of the little boys lying on the floor beside them. If help didn’t arrive within a few minutes he would lose Claudia.
And her two tiny babies would never know their beautiful, brave mother.
AS CLAUDIA’S BODY suddenly fell limp in Patrick’s arms, he heard the doors open behind him and instantly felt a firm grip on his bare shoulder.
‘We’ve got it from here,’ the deep voice said.
Patrick turned his head to see a full medical team rushing towards them. He had never been happier in his life than he was at that moment and, with adrenaline surging through his veins, he immediately began firing instructions at lightning speed. The miracle Claudia needed had arrived at the moment he had run out of options.
‘We’re dealing with a postpartum haemorrhage—she needs Syntocinon immediately and a catheter inserted so that the uterus has a better chance of contracting with an empty bladder. If she doesn’t stabilise she’ll be looking at a transfusion. Forget cross-matching as there may not be time; just start plasma now and have O negative waiting in OR.’
Patrick moved away as the medical team stepped in to begin the treatment he had ordered. Immediately they inserted an IV line, began a plasma transfusion then administered some pain relief and Syntocinon in an attempt to stop Claudia’s bleeding while another two paramedics collected the baby boys and left the elevator with them securely inside portable humidicribs.
‘Any idea why she’s still bleeding?’ the attending doctor asked.
‘Placenta accreta,’ Patrick said as he reached for the films lying on the floor. He kept his voice low so he would not alarm Claudia. ‘I checked the report on the ultrasound films. Only a very small amount of the placenta was delivered and the rest is still firmly entrenched in the uterus wall. If the report is correct, she may be looking at a surgery but a complete hysterectomy should be the surgeon’s last option. I doubt she’s more than late twenties, if that, so she might like to keep her womb.’
‘I’m sure they’ll proceed conservatively if they can.’
Patrick nodded. He had no idea what the future would hold for Claudia and he wanted her to have every choice possible. ‘The boys appear fine but they’ll need a thorough examination with the paediatrician,’ Patrick continued, not taking his eyes from Claudia. ‘One is a little smaller than the other but let’s hope there’s no underlying issues with their premature arrival.’
‘You did a remarkable job, all things considered,’ the paramedics told Patrick as they watched the barely conscious Claudia being lifted onto the gurney and then securely but gently strapped in.
Keeping his attention on Claudia, who was beginning to show signs of being lucid, the doctor added, ‘And you, young lady, are very lucky this man was sharing the elevator. It would not have been this outcome without him, that’s for certain. You and your boys all owe your lives to him.’
Claudia smiled a meek smile and held out her hand in an effort to show her gratitude. Patrick cupped it gently in his own strong hands and smiled back at her then he turned to the attending doctor. ‘I’ll be travelling side-saddle to the hospital if there’s room.’
‘There’s definitely room.’
* * *
For a little over three hours, Patrick divided his time between pacing the corridors outside Recovery and visiting the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit to check on Luca and Thomas. They had given him a consulting coat to cover his bare chest upon arrival at the hospital. Claudia’s dark-haired boys, one with sparkling blue eyes and the other with deep brown like their mother, were doing very well and he felt a deep and very unexpected bond with them. A bond that he hadn’t felt towards anyone, let alone tiny people, for more years than he cared to remember.
But these boys were special, perhaps because he’d delivered them in a crisis, or perhaps because their mother was clearly a very special woman. Perhaps it was both but, whatever was driving him to stay, he knew the three of them were bringing out protective feelings in him. A sense that he was needed and almost as if he belonged there. He should have felt unnerved and wanted to run but he didn’t. That need to protect himself from being hurt was overridden by the need to protect Claudia, Thomas and Luca.
Both boys weighed a little over four pounds, which was a relief. They were still in their humidicribs and being monitored closely but both had passed all the paediatrician’s initial tests and were being gavage fed by the neonatal nurses when Patrick left the nursery and headed back to check on their mother. Her surgery had taken far longer than he had anticipated. He had for a moment contemplated scrubbing in to assist when they’d arrived in Emergency and were rushed around to the OR but he’d immediately thought better of it. A reality check reminded him that his last obstetric surgery had ended his career.
Patrick wanted her to be spared the additional stress and long-term repercussions of the hysterectomy if possible and voiced that again upon arrival. The surgical resident had reassured Patrick that Dr Sally Benton was well respected in the field of gynaecological surgery and that Claudia would be in expert hands. Patrick hoped that the option to give birth again one day in the pretty delivery room with floral wallpaper, midwives and pain relief was not taken away. But, three hours later, he knew the reality of her surgery taking so long meant she had probably undergone a hysterectomy. And she would have to give up on that dream.
‘I’m Sally Benton.’ She pulled her surgical cap free and outstretched her hand.
‘Patrick Spencer,’ he responded as he met her handshake. He looked at the woman before him. She was tall and thin, her short black hair with smatterings of grey framed her pretty face and he suspected she was in her early fifties.
‘Dr Spencer, I assume.’
‘Yes.’
‘I wanted to personally thank you for the medical intervention you provided in the elevator. Miss Monticello is in Recovery now and she certainly wouldn’t be if you hadn’t done such an amazing job delivering her sons and keeping her alive. If you hadn’t been with her today, there would most definitely have been a question mark over their survival.’